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What if you could get more of what you want in life? But not through pushing, forcing, or pressure.
You can.
When it comes to money, time, and energy, no one’s gonna turn away more.
And Kate Northrup, Bestselling Author of Money: A Love Story and Do Less and host of Plenty, is here to help you expand your capacity to receive all of the best.
As a Money Empowerment OG who’s been at it for nearly 2 decades, Kate’s the abundance-oriented best friend you may not even know you’ve always needed.
Pull up a chair every week with top thought leaders, luminaries, and adventurers to learn how to have more abundance with ease.
Right. So I think of books and even religion and self help as operating systems, but meditation and specifically what I teach at Ziva is defragging your brain computer. It is upgrading the nervous system that is your brain and body and so once I found that I didn't I was not a seeker anymore. Was like, oh, found it. Right.
Emily Fletcher:And it's right inside of me. Wow. The thing I'm looking for is inside of No longer seeking. I have found it. Yeah.
Kate Northrup:I am a finder. Yeah. Correct. And it is inside. Yes.
Kate Northrup:And I can access it with two minutes, two twice a day fifteen minute sessions.
Emily Fletcher:That's right. You just close your eyes and you're like, oh, dancing with God. Oh, wait. Forget about seeing the face of God. I am the face of God.
Emily Fletcher:And you just remind yourself of that every day, twice a day. And and that might not sound like a big deal but like no actually sounds like the biggest deal, but it's a simple simple practice but the way that it changes how you show up with your kids, with your partner, with your coworkers, with your goals, with your money, like it changes everything.
Kate Northrup:Welcome to Plenty. I'm your host Kate Northrup and together we are going on a journey to help you have an incredible relationship with money, time, and energy, and to have abundance on every possible level. Every week, we're gonna dive in with experts and insights to help you unlock a life of plenty. Let's go fill our cups.
Speaker 3:Please note that the opinions and perspectives of the guests on the Plenty podcast are not necessarily reflective of the opinions and perspectives of Kate Northrup or anyone who works within the Kate Northrup brand.
Kate Northrup:Hello. Welcome to Plenty. I'm so excited to introduce you to my guest today. Her name is Emily Fletcher. She is the best selling author of Stress Less, Accomplish More, and she teaches high achievers like Navy SEALs, Olympians, Broadway actors, CEOs to stress less and achieve more, to actually meditate in order to optimize their lives and achievement.
Kate Northrup:And we are also bringing in a really yummy conversation about how adding pleasure and our circuitry around life force can enhance that. Enjoy the episode. Oh,
Emily Fletcher:it felt great.
Kate Northrup:Emily, you have taught high performers, household name Hollywood actors, incredible, like, also household name holistic doctors, all kinds of folks, Olympians maybe. Yeah. I just threw it in. Right?
Emily Fletcher:Yes. Navy seals.
Kate Northrup:Navy seals. CEOs like
Emily Fletcher:Stay at home moms.
Kate Northrup:How to finally let their bodies release the stress that they have been carrying around for generations. Okay? I'm so excited to talk to you about it. I just read your book, and it is called stress less accomplish more. It's all I
Emily Fletcher:know it's confusing because your book is very similar.
Kate Northrup:Well, here's what happened. So I know you know this story, but I'll just for, like, warm up. What happened is I was speaking at the Wanderlust Vermont one when Wanderlust used to be a thing. There's, like, yoga, whatever, wellness festivals. And it was, June, I think, of twenty nineteen, and they sent me the speaker lineup and the titles of the talks.
Kate Northrup:And they had me they had a workshop of mine called do less, have more simultaneously scheduled next to stress less, achieve more?
Emily Fletcher:Accomplish more. Accomplish more?
Kate Northrup:And I emailed them and I was like, hi. So I'm so excited about that other workshop. I feel like, I'm not sure who Emily's Fletcher is. I'm sure she's great. I just think it's gonna be confusing for participants to choose between those two workshops, which at first glance seem identical, and so they reorganized the programming.
Kate Northrup:And then I never got to meet you, but there was this one quick moment. We were there with our toddler and my, one year old. You had a one year old also at the time because you gave birth in June 2018. Yep. I gave birth in April 2018.
Kate Northrup:So our our our babies are yours is almost six. Mine turned six yesterday or two days ago. And I remember we were, like, walking down the sidewalk with, you know, the baby, the toddler, like, who even knows my boobs hanging out. And I saw you in the distance, and I was like, this would be my moment to introduce myself to this woman, but I just, like, couldn't. So, anyway, that was my intro to you, and I was like, there she is.
Kate Northrup:Stress less, accomplish more. You know what's so funny though, is
Emily Fletcher:that I like breastfed my way through that book launch, have never been more stressed in my entire And I felt like such a sham, know, felt like such a fraud where you're just like, I am not practicing what I'm preaching. But in hindsight, was like, know what, this is a chapter of life. You don't give birth to a book and a baby at the same time that often in your life, hope God willing.
Kate Northrup:God willing, but I know a lot of people who do it. I don't know what that is It's creativity
Emily Fletcher:the creativity portal.
Kate Northrup:Is, it's the creativity portal and then it's like, let's just put in two. We're gonna
Emily Fletcher:give you a book and a baby at the same time. So I'm so glad that we didn't meet then though. Me too. Because we met at the perfect time and I love the way that our friendship has evolved. I love the fact that we're both Aries.
Emily Fletcher:I love that we're in this mastermind together. I love that the more I learn about your work, I'm like, oh, wait. We're teaching
Kate Northrup:the exact Same same thing. It's wild. Which makes sense why they shouldn't have scheduled our workshops exact same time because literally same same, but really different also. So I'm really excited to find out more about the origin story and also where things have come to now five years later, almost sick well, yeah, five years later. Five years later because we launched our bay books when our babies were one.
Kate Northrup:So there you were on Broadway. And that's a dream of so many peoples, including, like, myself, like, in an alternate universe. Like, that would have been something that maybe I would have pursued. And you were miserable even though you were living your dream. Why do you think that was?
Emily Fletcher:Because I was more interested in the happiness of pursuit than I was the pursuit of happiness. Like I am happiest when I am moving towards a goal. I am happiest when I am using all of me to move towards something that I think is good for me or the planet. And I have been doing that since I was eight. You know, I was like, oh, once I get on Broadway, I'll be happy.
Emily Fletcher:Once I get on Broadway, it'll be martinis with Liza at sardis. And instead it was like girls eating tuna fish out of a can and complaining about their bunions and I was like, this is not my dream. And so, but I just thought it was the next show and the next zero and the next boyfriend and the next agent and I did that for ten years.
Kate Northrup:Ten years.
Emily Fletcher:But you know what, like I just was listening to an interview this morning and it was with Rebel Wilson and she's like, I'm so glad that I achieved my dream of becoming a Hollywood, you know, famous Hollywood actress. She made $20,000,000 in one year. She's like, I'm so glad I did that so that I could realize that that was not the key to happiness. And I think it's the same for me. I achieved my Broadway dream at 22 years old and it wasn't until I was about 30 that I was like, Oh, another show's not gonna do it.
Emily Fletcher:Like I'm gonna have to actually look inside.
Kate Northrup:But how did you find that out? What got you off the crack?
Emily Fletcher:Well, I used to pride myself on being a seeker. Know, like I was like, Oh, new therapy, new book, like you name it, I had done it. If there was a new software program that could up level your consciousness, I was in. But it wasn't until I found meditation that I got the hardware upgrade, right? So I think of books and even religion and self help as operating systems, but meditation and specifically what I teach at Ziva is defragging your brain computer.
Emily Fletcher:It is upgrading the nervous system that is your brain and body and so once I found that, I didn't, I was not a seeker anymore. Was like, Oh, found it. Right. And it's right inside of me. Wow.
Emily Fletcher:The thing I'm looking for is inside No of
Kate Northrup:longer seeking, I have found it. Yeah. I am a finder. Yeah. And it has been found.
Emily Fletcher:Correct.
Kate Northrup:And it is inside. Yes. And I can access it with two minute, two twice a day fifteen minute sessions.
Emily Fletcher:That's right, you just close your eyes and you're like, oh, Dancing with God. Oh wait, forget about seeing the face of God, I am the face of God. And you just remind yourself of that every day, twice a day. And that, that might not sound like a big deal but like no, actually sounds like the biggest deal. But it's a simple, simple practice, but the way that it changes how you show up with your kids, with your partner, with your coworkers, with your goals, with your money, like it changes everything.
Kate Northrup:It changes everything. Okay. So I have known you for a little bit now. I've heard you talk about meditation many times. I've listened to your podcast a lot.
Kate Northrup:It's one of my favorites. And I I mean, I think that, like, there's something about I love the content, but I also just like your voice.
Emily Fletcher:Wait. Speaking of my voice, can
Kate Northrup:we just my voice?
Emily Fletcher:Can we just give people a little disclaimer into what's happening? So my voice is a little extra husky today. I just got finished teaching at Summit at Sea, which is an amazing event with 3,000 entrepreneurs on a boat and so it's sort of like being on an airplane for three days. If you're wondering like Emily does not sound like herself, that is why.
Kate Northrup:It's extra sexy Emily.
Emily Fletcher:Extra sexy Emily.
Kate Northrup:Which I love. So we've been giving your lungs a lot of love.
Emily Fletcher:Also, I just tell them about your care package? Sure. You guys, Kate is the best. I'm in Miami and she and I tell her I was like, hey, I want to do this but my voice is a little off. She sends me the sweetest care package, a blanket that you charge in the sun, a nebulizer, garlic in a mason jar, like just so dang thoughtful.
Emily Fletcher:It was like a fairy godmother and a witch had a baby and sent a care package.
Kate Northrup:So thank you. You're so welcome. We all just need a lot of help.
Emily Fletcher:I felt very, very well
Kate Northrup:cared for the village that we seek. Yes. Okay. So I have a lot of questions. Let me organize them.
Kate Northrup:I'm going to tell you something first. So that is
Emily Fletcher:this. Two Aries giving an interview. Just gonna talk about ourselves. Wait. When's your birthday?
Emily Fletcher:March 27.
Kate Northrup:Oh, you were just a couple days after okay. Happy birthday. Thank Happy birthday season.
Emily Fletcher:Thank you.
Kate Northrup:I obviously know about meditation. I also have been listening to you talk about it for a long time. I've been listening to you interview people on your podcast who do your style of meditation. I am a trained yoga teacher. I trained in teaching meditation.
Kate Northrup:I have not been a meditator because I was just like, you know, walking is my meditation. I'm meditating as I do the dishes. I'm you know? And also, who has time for that? So growing up, my mom did TM twice a day, every day, twenty minutes.
Kate Northrup:And so, like, also, it's very in my realm that people do this, including mothers of young children. So I just, like, had no reason, but I was like, a, I don't have time for that. B, it's gonna be different. It's gonna it's like I already do that in my own way with all the shit that I do. Right?
Kate Northrup:And then to prepare for this interview, I read your book, finally, five years later. And I was like, oh, the science is undeniable, and this is not what I am doing when I am walking the ditches, and this is not what I am doing when I am dancing, and this is not what I am doing. I'm not doing this. I am not doing this. And so I just wanna say, what is I mean, I could tell you, but I wanna know from you.
Kate Northrup:Like, why does this why does the Ziva technique or the z technique as you teach in your book work for people finally after they have trained to be a meditation teacher, grown up with a meditator mother, and, like, gone decades of learning about this, but never did it. Like, somebody like me. Why why is this something that I suddenly was like, oh, I can do that, and it feels great. I've been doing it five days. But, like, five days is a lot compared to a lifetime of being a no.
Emily Fletcher:Okay. So you're saying what about
Kate Northrup:No. Like, why What about this got
Emily Fletcher:you to do it, or why is this work better than other things?
Kate Northrup:Well, I mean, I can tell you why I did it. It's because your book is very convincing. And, also, you are a walking testament. Just was Say everything. If I hadn't met you first, I think I still would have been really compelled.
Kate Northrup:First of all, you're ageless. Your skin is so radiant. Can we talk
Emily Fletcher:about my skin for a minute? Yes. I am I just turned 45 years old. I have a young child.
Kate Northrup:Yes.
Emily Fletcher:I am from Florida. Yeah. So just grew up with sun damage Right. You're
Kate Northrup:very fair.
Emily Fletcher:I'm very fair. I spent my whole twenties just like blackout drunk. Like there's no reason Right. Why my skin
Kate Northrup:should And like look this dancing on Broadway in the middle of the night.
Emily Fletcher:Correct. In the middle of the night sleeping until eleven a. M. Like eating french fries at one in the morning. Yeah.
Emily Fletcher:Like there's no reason my skin should look this good.
Kate Northrup:No. And it just keeps getting better. And it's so gorgeous and so luminous, I'm just going to fully out myself and be like, I think I'm going to start meditating so that I can have skin
Emily Fletcher:like Emily. No, I literally said to my team yesterday, I was like, you guys, we're gonna make an opt in and it's gonna be Emily's top five tips for skincare and it's be like, five, red light therapy, number four, vitamin C, I could give you the whole list. But number one, spoiler alert, is Ziva.
Kate Northrup:It should actually just be number one, Ziva. Number two Ziva. Number three, Ziva. All the rest of that stuff, I mean, I'm sure it is impacted. You also eat really well.
Kate Northrup:Yes. You also, you know I mean, it is an intense You're not currently smoking, drinking Correct. Like all Right. Clearly, it's the most important one. Yes.
Kate Northrup:Because I'm doing all the rest of that stuff too. And your skin looks amazing. I have great skin. However, like, you are a few years older than me, and I am looking ahead at like, Okay, let's head that direction.
Emily Fletcher:Yes. Let's head this direction.
Kate Northrup:Let's head that direction.
Emily Fletcher:I will also say that every birthday I'll do a ceremony which we can talk about later.
Kate Northrup:Oh, yes.
Emily Fletcher:And I like say out into the universe, I was like, I just want to keep feeling hotter and healthier.
Kate Northrup:Yes. That just keeps and healthier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kate Northrup:And you're very yummy to be around. So that I was just like, okay. I'll have that. Great.
Emily Fletcher:Okay. So the question
Kate Northrup:then is why is this method easier, honestly, and more effective than others? Because there's a lot of different meditation techniques.
Emily Fletcher:Yes. Okay. So first of all, thank you for admitting the fact that you were like, I thought I was meditating when I was doing the dishes. I thought I was meditating when I was doing yoga or dancing or being in the woods.
Kate Northrup:This is my life as a meditation.
Emily Fletcher:And people like, Yeah, like running. I'm like, That is called exercise. Cooking is called cooking and exercise is called exercise and meditation is called meditation. That's why they have their own words. They are in fact different things.
Emily Fletcher:Now, the reason why Ziva works so well is that even though it's a 6,000 year old practice, so the meditation portion of the Ziva technique is based on something called Nishkam Karma Yoga which means union attained by action hardly taken, lazy meditation and that thing
Kate Northrup:Right, action hardly taken. Yes, effortlessness
Emily Fletcher:and that thing is 6,000 years old but the Ziva technique which is mindfulness, meditation and manifesting, that's new, like that's the thing that I cognized because I had worked with so many high performers, so many high achievers, so many people like ourselves who have kids and families and companies and they're like, I don't have time to meditate. And so I knew that I needed to wrap up the practice inside of something that was gonna help people achieve their goals.
Kate Northrup:Yes.
Emily Fletcher:Right? And so the thing about Ziva is that it's giving your body rest that is five times deeper than sleep. And this is a really important point because when you give your body the rest that it needs, it knows how to heal itself. Then it's not just healing from the stress from today, which is what people think meditation is. Like, I had a stressful day, let me go and do some breath work or let me go and visualize something, which is fine.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. That creates a state change but Ziva is creating a trait change. It is actually healing you on a cellular level because that deep rest is de exciting your nervous system and when you de excite something, you create order and when you create order inside of your body, that lifetime of stress that we've all been accumulating can start to come up and out. So I think that's why we love each other so much and why our work is so complimentary because you're teaching people to regulate their nervous systems in relationship to money. I'm giving people the most powerful nervous system regulation tool that I've ever found and I've been studying this stuff for twenty something years.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. But I always say if I find something more powerful, I'll start teaching that.
Kate Northrup:Yeah, for sure, for sure and I think I had a misunderstanding and I'm really curious because there are places, multiple places that I have heard the following which is that if someone is like there are times where meditation can be contraindicated if someone is in a dysregulated nervous system state. What are your thoughts? What are those times? Well, yes. If because there are times when we are dysregulated on the end of a fight or flight response.
Kate Northrup:And, again, like, I'm not the world's leading expert here, so I'm genuinely interested in your the way I interview is not like, let me challenge you, just so you know.
Emily Fletcher:Kate Northrup with a cutting hard question.
Kate Northrup:What I'm doing. I'm just gen I'm genuinely curious. And so, like, when we are in a hyper nervous system response, we're out of our range of regulation. We're in a hyper. So fight, flight, that actually what we may so for somebody in a more extreme case, we need something that actually allows us to move and complete the direction that we are going and that, like, sitting still actually would not be the first place to start when we're in that that actual moment of like, I'm in fight flight.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Like, if
Emily Fletcher:if you're getting attacked by a tiger, do not stop, drop, and meditate. Like, it is appropriate.
Kate Northrup:But what if you your body thinks you're getting attacked by a tiger
Emily Fletcher:in Then your you then you should meditate.
Kate Northrup:Okay.
Emily Fletcher:Because the reality is that we are rarely under a predatory attack. Yeah. And yet our bodies are responding as if they are under a predatory attack and that is why stress is so toxic. That is why stress is so damaging and prematurely aging us. So I hear what you're saying about like sometimes we need to complete the stress reaction.
Kate Northrup:Yes.
Emily Fletcher:But the completion of it at the end is going back to regulation. Yes, of course. So it's like, feel it, feel it fully, but then you do want to regulate and I think meditation will be an amazing tool to regulate. The only times I recommend that people do not meditate is if they have had, like I will suggest people do not take Ziva if they've had a very recent, very intense trauma and they have suicidality, they're having suicidality thoughts, if they are suffering from like extreme split personality, then I will usually suggest therapy to start and I will suggest mindfulness to start.
Kate Northrup:Yes.
Emily Fletcher:Which, let's just maybe hit
Kate Northrup:on that. Yeah, let's do that. Yeah. So what are the, so you teach these three M's and I think many people conflate mindfulness with meditation. Yeah.
Kate Northrup:What's the difference and what's the third M?
Emily Fletcher:Yep. So mindfulness, meditation and manifesting, those are the three Ms that make up the Ziva technique and I have found that all three together are so much more powerful than any of them alone.
Kate Northrup:I think that quite frankly, that's why I wanted to try this because I like stimulus and just meditation sounds boring.
Emily Fletcher:So what was it the mindfulness part that feels stimulating or the or the manifesting part feels It
Kate Northrup:just felt more fun because there are three things, not one. Love it. Love love just seven Enneagram.
Emily Fletcher:My gosh.
Kate Northrup:More is more.
Emily Fletcher:That's why I'm so proud of you for saying no right now. So mindfulness is what most people are calling meditation right So most of the free apps on your phone, most of the guided videos on YouTube, they are teaching what I would call mindfulness. So anytime someone's guiding you through something, anytime you are focusing your awareness, I would put that in the category of mindfulness which is very different from the meditation portion of Ziva, which is where we are giving our body rest that's five times deeper than sleep and you're actually moving beyond the realm of thinking into the realm of pure being, into the realm of pure consciousness, into pure source. And so, you know, like Joe Dispenza would teach this is like you're accessing that source energy or the field of limitless possibility, know, the quantum field. So I can drop people into that within thirty to forty five seconds.
Emily Fletcher:It doesn't have to take forty five minutes of someone yelling at you. You can actually just like close your eyes
Kate Northrup:and like drop right into it. Anytime. Okay. So the other thing that has been really powerful and I'm going to come back to how they all three work together is like that dropping in whenever you want. Like, this morning, I meditated while both of my kids were in the bedroom just like, I don't know what they were doing.
Kate Northrup:And that was great because this idea that it has to be, like, quiet and I have to have specific props and I had to ba da da. Then it just makes it so easy to be like, well I can't do that.
Emily Fletcher:Totally. It's like, you know, I trick myself into working out because I have a free app called the seven minute workout and it requires no equipment and it's seven minutes and so as long as I can get a sports bra on my body, I have no excuse to not do it. And I feel like the same is true of Ziva. It's like it doesn't require equipment. You don't have to be able to clear your mind.
Emily Fletcher:You can do it literally anywhere. There can be noise happening. Your kids can be in the next room. You can do it at the office. It takes fifteen minutes and your entire life will get better.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. It's really hard to argue against it. Okay, the mindfulness, back to
Kate Northrup:the apps, that's not meditation.
Emily Fletcher:It is what I would call mindfulness. So I would define mindfulness as the art of bringing your awareness into the present moment, which is beautiful and profound. And guess what? The present moment is where our bliss and fulfillment live. So like there's a big game there coming back to now, back to now especially in where we're all addicted to our phones.
Emily Fletcher:However, this is very different from the meditation portion of Ziva where you are accessing a verifiable fourth state of consciousness. So different than waking, different than sleeping and different from dreaming and it's in that fourth state of consciousness that you're giving your body that deep rest and so that we go back to the de excitation. And one thing that I think is very cool is that you're not just healing the stress from your body and your life, you can actually start to unwind the stuff that you've inherited for at least two generations. Some people hypothesize as many as seven.
Kate Northrup:Well, the way that our DNA overlaps and the fact that our eggs existed when our mother that like the egg that created each of us existed when our mother was a fetus in our grandmother's womb at the age of four months gestation, I think it would be really hard to even say where that exactly would end because there really is no end or no beginning to a specific human life. Yes. So Amen. I think it goes beyond two generations.
Emily Fletcher:Just hypothesizing. No, what you're suggesting though is that it would be very hard to even argue that two generations back Wouldn't.
Kate Northrup:Would not be impacted. It's infinite. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.
Emily Fletcher:So great. What happens with the third M? Okay, so at the end of the Zebra practice, spent like one minute in mindfulness, you do about fourteen ish minutes with the meditation and then the last two minutes we practice manifesting And manifesting is my jam. I know it's your jam too and so what is manifesting? I would define manifesting as consciously creating a life you love.
Emily Fletcher:It's you getting intentional about how you want your life to look and when people are like, oh, sounds too woo woo or that's too hippy dippy, I'm like, here's the reality, we are all manifesting all the time. Your thoughts do become things, it's just are you aware of it or not? Are you being intentional about it? It's like, are you doing your quarterly goals like you would at a company? Are you setting your annual goals like you would at a company?
Emily Fletcher:You want to do that with your life as well. So the magic of manifesting at the end of Ziva is that you've just flooded your brain and body with dopamine and serotonin which are bliss chemicals. So you've done, here I'm going give you the world's simplest manifestation formula. Ready? Feel good, place the order, place the order, feel good.
Emily Fletcher:Feel good, place the order, place the order, feel good. Feel good, place the order, place the order, feel good. And that's kind of it. I mean, that's a simple formula to understand. It's much more intense to practice because it's not about putting a happy face sticker on an empty tank of gas.
Emily Fletcher:It is about doing whatever the F it takes to sustainably and reliably feel good. And one of those things is meditation. And the thing about meditation is that it's not just going make you feel better when your eyes are closed. It's not an escapism. Not because if you want to just feel good when your eyes are closed, you could go get high or you could take drugs or something.
Emily Fletcher:But this is about, yes, you're going to release that dopamine and serotonin when your eyes are closed but then that's going to stay with you throughout the rest of the day and it's going to increase your baseline level of bliss so that not only the manifestations that happen when you're in the sitting but the state of consciousness with which you are viewing the entirety of the rest of your life changes. So what we do in the manifesting portion is at the end, I have people ask the question that's very simple, what would I love? What would I love right now? And love puts you into spirit, it puts you into possibility. What would I love right now?
Emily Fletcher:It puts you into presence. And when you ask that question from that space of having access to source energy, from that space of flooding your brain and body with dopamine and serotonin, it becomes this two way conversation. It's not just you complaining to God, right? Which is like what most people do when they pray. They're like, this person's sick, can you fix that?
Kate Northrup:Or even placing the order from ego. Or fear or lack.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Right? Like can I please have some more money? Can I please find a boyfriend because I'm almost 30 and I don't know if I'm ever going to find one? And that neediness is not it, you know?
Emily Fletcher:But if you're coming to your prayers from a place of I already have everything that I need, thank you so much for everything you've already given me. Gratitude is simply acknowledging everything you've already manifested. It's acknowledging everything that nature's already co created with you and then from that place of fulfillment to ask the question, what would I love? You can get curious and actually listen to the answer and it might surprise you.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Yeah. How did you find meditation?
Emily Fletcher:So I was on Broadway doing A Chorus Line. I was understudying three of the lead roles which means you show up to the theater you have no idea character you're gonna play. Singular sensation. I know I can tell you these stories because you're a Broadway nerd like me but I was hired really to play Sheila. I was hired because I was an amazing Sheila.
Kate Northrup:I bet you were. But I
Emily Fletcher:went on all the time for Val and Val's the tits and ass girl and I was horrible at, like you'd be a great Val.
Kate Northrup:Oh, thanks.
Emily Fletcher:Yes. I was not a good Val and so, and yet the girl that played Val called out sick all the time. So I was getting thrown on at a moment's notice for a role that I was terrible at. Oh geez. And like the first time I ever went on was the first time they ever gave comp tickets to the Broadway community so it was just filled with judgey gays and I was like, oh no, oh no.
Emily Fletcher:Like they were like, this is not Val, she is not good, she cannot hit that note, She is not doing good. And I was like, this is my worst nightmare coming true. I like didn't, and I already had insomnia and then that happened and my insomnia got worse. And so like here I am on Broadway doing the thing I wanted to do since I was a child. And this is why I was miserable.
Emily Fletcher:I was going gray. I was getting sick.
Kate Northrup:And you were what, like 29?
Emily Fletcher:I was 26, 27.
Kate Northrup:26 going gay. Well, we can talk about that later. Okay. Twice. Do you wanna take a deep break?
Kate Northrup:No. Oh my god. This is perfect. How old were you when you went k? I guess about 18.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Okay. Great. So we'll circle back. You're 26, getting gray hair, insomniac, freaking out.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. How did you find meditation? Okay.
Emily Fletcher:The thing that makes this so much harder is how much I'm trying to not cough when I'm laughing. It's okay. Okay. We can do another whole podcast about my spectrum of gayness.
Kate Northrup:That'd be great.
Emily Fletcher:Okay, great. But on this, I was in my twenties, having insomnia, going gray, sucking at my job, knowing that I'm sucking at my job and all I want to do is be good at my job. Like all I want to do is be the best Broadway performer. And so thankfully this amazing woman was sitting next to me in the dressing room, her name was Dionne and she was understating five of the leads, including Cassie, and crushing it. I mean every song she sang, every dance she danced, every bite of food this woman ate, she'd be like, Oh, this is sensational.
Emily Fletcher:And she was Australian. Amazing. Meditation does not
Kate Northrup:give you a
Emily Fletcher:bad Australian accent. And I was like, Girl, what do you know that I don't know? And she said, I meditate, to which I like gave the world's biggest I eye
Kate Northrup:was like, You
Emily Fletcher:don't understand, my stress is special. Ain't nobody got time for that. Like I have real problems. Did you see what just happened on that stage yesterday? And so anyway, she's finally, she's like, look, my teacher's in town.
Emily Fletcher:And I was like, look, got to try something. And so I went along to this course. First day of the first course, I was in a different state of consciousness than I had ever been in before and I liked it and then that night I slept through the night for the first time in eighteen months and I have every night since and that was sixteen years ago. Then I stopped getting sick, didn't get sick for eight and a half years until maybe this boat ride this weekend.
Kate Northrup:This is like a cosmic clearing,
Emily Fletcher:it's Yeah, cosmic clearing. I started enjoying my job again and
Kate Northrup:I was like,
Emily Fletcher:why isn't everyone doing this? It's not just the name of my podcast. Like I am genuinely that girl that when I find something that works, I'm like, Why isn't everyone doing this? So I left Broadway, I went to India, I started what became a three year training process to teach. So just so that people have some context for this, it's not like a weekend certification.
Emily Fletcher:It was thousands of hours of meditation, thousands of hours of apprenticing, hundreds of hours of transcribing books by hand in Sanskrit and about eighteen hours a week of this industrial strength meditation for a year. I was meditating eighteen hours a week for a year. Wow. Which basically like any old story you had lodged in your nervous system starts to come up and out. Like I went fully insane.
Emily Fletcher:But then I think that's the thing that forges you into the type of person that has a nervous system that people want to learn to meditate from.
Kate Northrup:Totally. And then you had the gall to teach it online.
Emily Fletcher:Oh, yes. This is a great
Kate Northrup:story. Yeah, please tell.
Emily Fletcher:So I was in a very beautiful community. I was sort of like becoming the rising star of the community. Like I would go on retreats.
Kate Northrup:In your meditation community.
Emily Fletcher:In my meditation community, yes.
Kate Northrup:That was based in the lineage in India. Yeah. Well, yes. Okay.
Emily Fletcher:I mean, they were all over the world.
Kate Northrup:And this teacher you went to with Dion, the Australian Uh-huh. Also was from this particular lineage Yes. As well. Okay.
Emily Fletcher:So he's
Kate Northrup:The one that you said, can
Emily Fletcher:you say the Sanskrit word The phrase? Nishkam Karma Yoga. Nishkam Karma. Yep. So I learned from a person in New York City and then ended up going to LA and ended up in Rishikesh, India.
Emily Fletcher:So I had this beautiful like global network of meditators from all over the world and I was quickly becoming like, you know, well known as a teacher and I love teaching and I was using all of my theatricality to make the courses really entertaining. Totally.
Kate Northrup:And then Meditation, but make it Broadway.
Emily Fletcher:Yes, make meditation, but I was like, it doesn't have to be so effing boring, Like meditation is boring enough, we can at least make learning about it fun. I remember I would go on these retreats and people would ask the teacher questions and he would be like, Emily, what do you think? Emily, what do you think? What do you think? Because my business is going very well.
Emily Fletcher:Then I did, I had the gall and the audacity to make the world's first online meditation training. What year was 2013. 05/13/2013. So it was actually just weeks before Headspace came out, weeks before the first Oprah Chopra challenge. So it's weird to think now like anyone 40 doesn't remember a time that meditation wasn't was or it was weird.
Emily Fletcher:And so they also can't remember that like online courses weren't a thing. So online courses were weird, meditation was weird. And so I was known as what people would call like a nudist Buddhist in the business community. You can be one flavor of weird, but you can't be two flavors of weird. So it's like, you could be nudist or you could be a Buddhist, but you can't be a nudist Buddhist.
Emily Fletcher:And I was both. So I launched this course. I put every penny I had. Cost me like $20,000 to shoot it and edit it. And I like cobbled together the back end with like chewing gum and floss.
Emily Fletcher:Uh-huh. And you know, like it was not plug and play like it I is
Kate Northrup:do know.
Emily Fletcher:And for six weeks, I was like leading up to it and we did our first sales call and two people purchased. And the thing cost $199 So I'd spent $20,000 building an online course that I made $400 on the first launch. And I was like, Oh, no, I've made a horrible mistake. And big shout out to my ex husband, who was like, You're not wrong, you're just early. You're just early.
Emily Fletcher:You're just early, like trust yourself, trust this, you're just early. And it was like one of the best pieces of advice that I got because I mean, who knew? Like who knew that online courses and meditation were going to become, you know, so ubiquitous, so everywhere. So I'm glad I stayed the course. But when I made that, I got kicked out of my meditation community.
Emily Fletcher:Like they were mad at me because I had I don't actually know why they were mad at me. Don't think any of them actually took the course because I took great care in making sure that I wasn't taking the things that are protected in the lineage, taking the inner workings of the things that are not meant to be transmitted online.
Kate Northrup:Well, even in your book, you do that.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Like I the book is like the Vespa. Ziva Online is the Toyota and Ziva Live is the Tesla. Yeah. Right?
Emily Fletcher:And they all serve different purposes. They're all going to get you where you're going. They're For all going to reduce your stress. They're all to increase your consciousness, but they're varying levels of power. And by power I mean like how much unstressing is it going to create in the body.
Emily Fletcher:So anyway, I got kicked out of the community which in hindsight taught me how to fly. Like I needed that nest and I needed you to get kicked out of that nest. Wow.
Kate Northrup:Just for curiosity's sake, like have you ever been in touch with anybody from that community again?
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Still have some really dear friends Yeah. From there. Yeah. And then Back to when I turned gay.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. You're coming we're coming back because even if you had spent your entire career beating the drum of meditation, you would be changing millions and millions of lives. But you are iterative. You are a hungry bitch. You are appetitious.
Kate Northrup:Right? You want, and that's beautiful. And I only recognize it because I am that too. And so there's been more. There's been even more.
Kate Northrup:And one of the stories that you have told on your podcast is when you discovered the combination of bringing then our life force energy in with manifestation. How did that come about? When were you introduced to and maybe it has something to do with your birthday ritual. Yes, it does.
Emily Fletcher:Okay. So, yeah, about three years ago, I had a big life change. I don't know if anyone has noticed, '20 but '20 was kind of a big year for the species. Maybe someone listening had that same experience. But I had one very amazing life and then everything just, you know, changed.
Emily Fletcher:I have this one video on my Instagram of my son taking my vision board from 2020 and just ripping it all off and it was just like that is the most apropos video I've ever seen. He was like one year old, like he wasn't doing it maliciously. Was just No, like
Kate Northrup:he was just ripping paper because that's what babies do.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah, we got new plans. So basically what I discovered was this way to practice embodied manifesting. And so it's sort of like the next part of the Ziva technique. So there's mindfulness meditation and manifesting but the way that I had been teaching manifesting was from the neck up. Yeah.
Emily Fletcher:And that works. Thoughts become things. What we put our attention on grows. It's true. I just found a way to supercharge it.
Emily Fletcher:If you start to get your head, your heart and your hoo all pointed towards your dreams. And so good news about a hoo everybody has one and it includes both your anatomy and the energy center around your anatomy. So just like when we say heart, we don't just mean the organ beating the blood, mean also the electromagnetic field around it that is 5,000 times more powerful than our heads. So anyone who's ever manifested anything, if you've been doing that with your thoughts, be like, Okay, cool. Now imagine you could supercharge that times 5,000.
Emily Fletcher:That's what happens when you start manifesting with your heart. Now imagine that you could plug the generator and the magnet of your body up to that same dream.
Kate Northrup:Your creative center.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah, your creative life force, the thing that is like the generator and magnet of your body. So that's what I've been doing with something called Sacred Secret. So that's this new body of work and here's the real spoiler alert, the secret is that we're all God pretending to be human. That's like the real esoteric like lens out is that we're all divine masquerading as human but the formula is visualize, alchemize, magnetize. So we visualize something we want to manifest, we alchemize anything standing in the way and then we magnetize it with this life force energy or what I call creation energy.
Emily Fletcher:So what is creation energy? It is the life force inside of us, a thing that it could, yes, make a baby but it could also write a book or it could start a company, like you can do whatever you want with it. It's just pure creation energy, just a matter of like where do we want to point that. So 2020 happened, I asked for a divorce, three weeks later I met my now love Adam and my best friend Leila.
Kate Northrup:On the same night, right?
Emily Fletcher:On the same night and I also did a very profound medicine ceremony all in one day and it was like boop, timeline shift. We got a new pair of shoes.
Kate Northrup:New pair of shoes.
Emily Fletcher:We got a new pair of cosmic shoes. And then nature started like fire hosing me with his PhD in sacred sexuality and I was
Kate Northrup:like, thank That was not really you did write about you know, there's a chapter in your book called Om to OMG. Yes. And so you did talk about sexual energy a little bit. Yes. But that wasn't a world you were in before.
Kate Northrup:Correct. Sacred sexuality really at all or pinky toe?
Emily Fletcher:It's interesting because I now live with Regina Thomas Chow, aka Mama Gina. Yeah. And she's always like, girl, why is your pussy so turned on? Like she's always like, why are
Kate Northrup:you so activated? Like you don't present as a woman who started this kind of thing three years ago.
Emily Fletcher:Right, like she doesn't understand why I am as embodied as I am, but I think it's from Broadway. Like I've been singing and dancing and acting since I was eight. I've been using my body as since an I was eight. Have been alchemizing emotions through acting or singing or dance since I was eight. So there was already like a deep level of embodiment that I actually think that just teaching meditation and just sitting down and talking about neuroscience was not big enough to hold all of me.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Like that was not a big enough to hold my performer, my peacock, my Right, dancer,
Kate Northrup:because my it is missing a whole, the vast majority of us. What do you mean? Just our head is missing the vast majority of us. If we're only in like head up, which I understand like you're talking about the nervous system, which is going through our entire body. So you've always been talking about the entire body.
Kate Northrup:Yes. But it is like and I think, like, in our culture, that's the opportunity we have is to bring in all of us. Yes. And I think that's why you know what? Here's why I was ready to start meditating because I know you and I know it's not only head up.
Kate Northrup:So I think I because honestly, meditation to me has always been like, I'm like, I'm not gonna fix things with my head. It's not where I go. Yes. But because I know you and I know, like, I have felt your embodiment and how you bring the whole thing, it felt, like safe and it felt like, oh, this is a technique that has space for all of me.
Emily Fletcher:Oh, I would argue that the technique has nothing but space and that it's not using the head at all because the whole deal is that you're moving beyond the realm of thinking into the realm of being.
Kate Northrup:Doesn't which even
Emily Fletcher:You transcending the mind.
Kate Northrup:And transcending the body, Yes,
Emily Fletcher:yeah, like I am not Emily Fletcher when I am in the meditation, I just am.
Kate Northrup:You just are. Yeah.
Emily Fletcher:And then when you and that lets you in on the sacred secret as well because it's like the little wave of individuality de excites to remind itself that it is the ocean of totality. And then when you come back into that meditation, the wave is no longer under the illusion that it is just the wave. It knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is also the ocean. And that's one of the reasons why I love this style of meditation and this lineage so much is that it's constantly celebrating the duality. It is celebrating individuality and totality.
Emily Fletcher:It is celebrating human and divine. It's not saying this human life is just an illusion, just put your attention on God. Right. It's like both and.
Kate Northrup:Yeah, both and because I have also sat in rooms with folks who are like, this is just a meat suit And first of all, don't like that phrase. Me neither. It makes me want to vomit. Second of all, I'm like, actually, my experience living in a human body is incredibly tran like, divine. I don't even want to use the word transcendent.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Divine. Transcendent means we are moving up and out. And my greatest moments of awe and of, I don't know, like the fullness of being have been deeply in my body.
Emily Fletcher:Yes. Amen. And I think that's why Ziva, like the meditation and Sacred Secret are just such beautiful compliments for each other because the meditation is about transcendence. It is about connecting to that everythingness. But Sacred Secret is all about being so deeply in your body, about bringing the divinity in, the divinity is already in the body.
Emily Fletcher:It's just about remembering it and savoring
Kate Northrup:Exactly, and maybe even turning up the dial to feel more of it. Yes. Do you think that in order to practice Sacred Secret, you need to have onboard a meditation practice?
Emily Fletcher:I don't think it's necessary. I think it certainly helps.
Kate Northrup:Okay, great.
Emily Fletcher:Like I, and I've struggled with this quite a bit, I'm like do I want to have people do Ziva online before Totally, they do that's sacred a prerequisite. Right, is it a prerequisite? And I think just for all reasons, no. However, I know that there are some like Tantra teachers that are like I won't even teach Tantra unless you've done meditation for ten years.
Kate Northrup:Totally.
Emily Fletcher:And I think that's why when I started getting introduced to these practices, they took like wildfire is because I had such fertile soil. Right. I had meditating for sixteen years. So you planted those seeds and it was like, I had these massive activations. I took to it really quickly because my nervous system was very supple.
Emily Fletcher:It was like, it wasn't like rigid from lifetime of
Kate Northrup:stress. Exactly. Yeah. And so when you say fertile soil, want to highlight because that's an analogy I use a lot. Our soil really to me, our soil is our body and at the core core core of it, it is the architecture or the the key communication system of our body, which is our nervous system.
Kate Northrup:And so what we plant in that soil is dependent on the health of the soil and you had this incredibly healthy fertile soil like ready to go because it wasn't running trauma loops.
Emily Fletcher:Yes, totally. You know? So that said, I do think it's helpful before you start Sacred Secrets to have a meditation practice. However, what has blown my mind again and again and again is how powerful the pleasure is because that's what Sacred Secret is. Ultimately, we're using like our pleasure to pray.
Emily Fletcher:I've been amazed at how potent that pleasure is at alchemizing trauma.
Kate Northrup:Yes. So that's the other thing. What is some of the data you know either anecdotal or actual research around pleasure and the nervous system?
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Well, I'll share a few data pieces and then I'll share anecdotal. One is that if you are orgasming three times or more a week, you look ten years younger. Three orgasms a week, looking ten years younger.
Kate Northrup:That's a great prescription.
Emily Fletcher:That is a great prescription. Also, orgasm is like this moment of, in French, they call it the petite morte, it's a little death, right? So you're practicing dying which is also what we do in meditation. We are practicing dying. Shivasana means corpse pose, right?
Emily Fletcher:So we're practicing dying and it's also, you know, we're starting to incorporate medicine as well as Eva and that, so our new mission statement is that we want to help people turn up the dial in their divinity through meditation, pleasure and medicine so that we can solve the big challenges that we're facing as a species and have a great time doing it. But what medicine, pleasure and meditation all have in common is that they're all ways of practicing dying, which really that sounds scary, but it just means like knowing that this body, this identity, this personality is not all that there is. That there's a whole vast universe that we can dance with as well. So anecdotally, what I've seen on these retreats, so I do online retreats, in person retreats and I've seen people where I was like, certainly that person is about to leave. They're about to go get on an airplane and leave this retreat.
Emily Fletcher:Like they are so triggered, they are so like in their stuff and most of the people who come to me are brand new. They've not done any tantra, any breath work, any medicine ceremonies, they just show up and they're like, Okay, there's something in my transmission that just allows people to trust me, which I take very, very seriously. It's amazing. What a gift. It is.
Emily Fletcher:And so I can take people from brand new to very, very deep, provided that we go slow and make sure that their intellect understands it. But then they'll do one like emotional alchemy session and then they're shining brighter than I've ever seen before. Like in every single breath work, we have people be like, I rebirthed myself, I birthed my unborn daughter, I birthed a daughter that I miscarried. So there's this like deep birthing process that always happens. I also, this is a guy I'm going to see tonight, he's coming to my event tonight, 47 year old straight white male cisgendered man firefighter from Miami.
Kate Northrup:Oh, heard you talk about him. Yeah.
Emily Fletcher:I just think I can't stop telling this story. So we're on the sacred ziggo retreat. We do this exercise. Afterwards, he sits up and he's like, well, I found my energetic pussy and I liked it. I also felt what it was like to gestate my unborn daughter.
Emily Fletcher:And I was like, ladies and gentlemen, this is what the crumbling of the patriarchy looks like. It has nothing to do with destroying anything. It has to do with giving everyone a visceral experience of the profundity of the divine feminine. And if we all could taste that and feel that, we wouldn't be trying to eradicate it from We the would be wanting to proliferate it on the planet. More please.
Emily Fletcher:More.
Kate Northrup:Do you practice
Emily Fletcher:Also can I say the p word on this? Should maybe ask.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Okay. Great. Can say anything. Okay.
Kate Northrup:I mean I showed up at Regina's doorstep when I was 22 like yeah. God bless. We do. And I good friends. Shout out
Emily Fletcher:to Regina Thomaschauer and Leila Martin. Like they've been just such dear friends and amazing teachers.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So do you practice Sacred Secret and meditation every day?
Emily Fletcher:I meditate every day, twice a day. Like non for sixteen years except for when I had my son. For about a month postpartum I didn't meditate one time. Really? Not one time.
Emily Fletcher:Was in That's very liberating to Okay, I'm glad.
Kate Northrup:Yeah, that's helpful I think.
Emily Fletcher:Not once. I was in the real shitter. I had a really tough postpartum.
Kate Northrup:I'm so
Emily Fletcher:sorry. Hard. You know what, was like, know what, I have put deposits in my bank account.
Kate Northrup:Well, that's the thing, right? Because how many years before that had you been meditating twice a day?
Emily Fletcher:Like eleven. Yeah, so I've been depositing so in the bank that I could withdraw. Yeah. Okay, so long story short, I do meditate twice a day every day. However, I do not practice Sacred Secrets every day.
Emily Fletcher:I feel like I'm constantly sourcing my life force energy, I'm constantly playing the game of feel good, place the order but as far as like the actual formula of Visualize, Alchemize, Magnetize, I like to do that a bit more ceremonially. Love it. So if there's something big I want to manifest, I'll do a ceremony with myself, sometimes my partner and I will do a ceremony where we'll say out loud something that we want to manifest, he'll say his dream, I'll say mine or sometimes it's the same thing and then we'll do a ceremony together And also like once people learn it, like the minimum viable dose is basically any time you're in an ecstatic state, any time you're in an orgasmic state, you can think about your dreams. And I really love this idea of using our pleasure to pray. Like it's so, it's like the perfect kind of blasphemous because the exact thing that we've been told is a sin or wrong or that we're going to go to hell for I think is the most holy, divine, sacred thing that there is.
Kate Northrup:Which is why we were told That's right. It was
Emily Fletcher:And so to reclaim that pleasure for ourselves and then to use it to dedicate to our dreams has been one of the most profound, sacred, holy initiations of my entire life.
Kate Northrup:Do you ever actively bring your attention to your hoo while you're doing the third M in your meditation practice in your so after the mindfulness meditation and then manifesting?
Emily Fletcher:Great question. To bring
Kate Northrup:online that part of your body.
Emily Fletcher:It's starting to happen organically now. Like now after I meditate, I feel like this surge of pleasure happening in my body. And so I think my body's starting to link together my manifestations and pleasure, which is great.
Kate Northrup:So I just am remembering right now that what's been happening to me as I do the third m, so this thing started happening to me in my mid twenties ish, 26, 27 where when I have an orgasm, sometimes I shake and it's this uncontrollable, not in a bad way, like deep contraction in, like, the deep, deep part of my belly. So my friend Megan Waterson explained to me about Kundalini rising, and we did a whole meditation about it, and it was a whole thing. So she explained what was going on, and that has happened ever since then. It feels similar to giving birth, honestly, but it does it's more pleasurable in my experience of giving birth. And then it also has happened the times that I've done psilocybin, which is really interesting.
Kate Northrup:And then anytime I think about it, it will also happen And other times too, I just did other times, but it's been happening spontaneously during the third M, which I think is really interesting.
Emily Fletcher:What do you think about that? Yes. So I taught someone this very early on in my meditation career and we did a whole Puja ceremony, I gave her her mantra and then everyone was meditating and then someone left and I was like, Uh-oh, that's not good, like why is she leaving? And then I went and finally I went to check on her and she was in the bathroom and I like, Are you okay? She's like, I don't know.
Emily Fletcher:And afterwards I was like, Let's talk, let's chat. And what was happening is that there was a lot of Kundalini energy that was waking up in her right out of the gate and sometimes when you meditate, what's happening is because you're bringing the whole body into order, you're sort of like unblocking the whole sushunya, the whole like chakra lines, the energy will start to move. And what happened for her is that she actually started having spontaneous orgasms every time she meditated.
Kate Northrup:That's fun. Well, it sounds fun though.
Emily Fletcher:Unless you're like, this is a non consensual orgasm. Totally. Yeah. Like you really want to choose that.
Kate Northrup:Absolutely. You know,
Emily Fletcher:you want choose when, you want to choose where. And so then what happens, we unblocked her sacral chakra and then the energy could start to flow. Then she started having like spontaneous Mudras and having all these exciting things were happening. So, the thing is that usually the energy starts at the root, it starts at the base and so we want it to flow, we want to be able to send that energy anywhere we want. We want to bring it up to our solar plexus for confidence.
Emily Fletcher:We want to bring it up to our brains to fuel our visions. We want to bring it up to our heart to fuel our love. But ultimately, like we want to be the ones driving the ship, like where do I want this energy to be manifest? Yeah. Okay.
Emily Fletcher:Speaking of manifestation. Mhmm.
Kate Northrup:So you have a really different take on manifestation and you've just explained it, is feel good, place the order, place the order, feel good, which I absolutely love. I am so on board. And you said in your book that when we say at the end, in the in the third m, in the manifestation portion, what would I really love, which I don't know if you said that in this book, So I'm really excited to have that other piece of information because I am a nonspecific manifestor and I get a little tripped up with the like visualizing a thing happening.
Emily Fletcher:By the way, thank you so much. I think our group like our mastermind group introduced this concept to me. Cause I'm also a nonspecific manifestor.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. So I struggle with like, visualizing a specific thing I want to have happen. And it actually makes me feel a little constricted. Yep. And so you shared that the instructions were receiving at that time are not a plan that we are delivering, but they're actually like a manual.
Kate Northrup:So we're actually, that that when we are getting in touch with our desires, they're not like a ego based, identity based, personality based plan, but they're actually sort of like our divine instruction manual that we're receiving. Yes. And so that piece that you just added around, like, what would I love when we're in that really regulated beautiful bliss field space is so so great. And I'm curious for you, like, I know you have stuff you want. You have goals.
Kate Northrup:So do I. But, like, I feel all, like, around, like, visualizing them specifically. I can get a little if so, like, I don't know. What do you think? Should we be, like, visualizing a specific thing, or should I just get into the mode of I'm gonna in this moment feel as good as possible and just trust that what is meant for me is just gonna come?
Emily Fletcher:So this is a very nuanced question. This certainly depends on the person. It depends on where they are in their manifestation career. It depends on if they are what I would call active or receptive manifestors. It also depends on the goal.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Right? Like if you're manifesting a person, like a partner, likely what you want to put your attention on is how that relationship feels, how you feel in their presence, how they feel to you versus like, well, I like the way his stubble feels on my skin or you know, mean like certainly those details, here's what I say, the details matter only to the degree to which they make you feel good. So if the details make you feel good, then great, feel the stubble on your skin. Picture that peacock blue on the wall of your new home.
Emily Fletcher:You know, feel the leather on the steering wheel of the car if the details turn you on. If the details stress you out, then don't do it, go into the feeling. And what I want people to know is that you don't have to have a specific like, you know, point by point plan in order to manifest. It can be as simple as I'm manifesting freedom, I'm manifesting generosity. I'm manifesting the feeling of possibility.
Kate Northrup:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Kate Northrup:Thank you for that. Mhmm. Super, super helpful. Mhmm. So if someone is listening to this conversation and they are like, I have been reading your book and finally ready, finally like, yes, I clearly have time for fifteen minutes a day, twice a day, if it is going to make every single part of my life better, how could I possibly not have time for that?
Kate Northrup:Where should they start to learn this incredible practice? Yeah. So I think that the the book is really good at the why we meditate. It's a great
Emily Fletcher:like science, the science of sex, how it's gonna reverse your body It's age
Kate Northrup:so good.
Emily Fletcher:Improve your sleep.
Kate Northrup:Thank you so I love the science so much. I love this book so much. I am so It's really great. It really And also fun to read.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. Thank But smart.
Kate Northrup:Sometimes books that are fun aren't that smart.
Emily Fletcher:I think I I am both of those things. You are. And Zoe, I appreciate that that translated in the book. But the book is really like the why and the science, but where Ziva Online, which is, remember I said I made the world's first online meditation training, so that was back in 2013. So I've had eleven years to refine this puppy, right?
Emily Fletcher:And also create like the minimum viable dose. Like I'm not looking for people to do this, they don't need to spend their whole days meditating. It's like, no, we meditate to get good at life, not to get good at meditation. So it's just fifteen minutes a day for fifteen days and that's our most popular, our most effective meditation training, it's called Ziva Online and the first three days teach the mindfulness, It's also a lot of the neuroscience and then days four through twelve teach you the meditation. And the thing I want people to understand, we touched on it a little bit, but this is likely not like any other meditation they've tried.
Emily Fletcher:It feels more like a nap sitting up than it does like I have to clear my mind or I have to sit totally still. It's it's not a monk practice. It is a practice for people like us. It is a practice for people with busy minds and busy lives so you don't have to clear your mind. And then days thirteen, fourteen and fifteen, we teach the manifesting and it doesn't matter if you're specific or non specific, it doesn't matter if you know what your dreams are not, it's just time to take two minutes from this place of feeling good to place the order.
Emily Fletcher:And again, I've found that all three Ms together are so much more powerful than anyone alone. So I'd love to gift your folks a free masterclass if they want to go to zevameditationthere.com/ is a free masterclass there that goes into some of the science that we cover in the book and then there's a beautiful invitation to join Ziva online in there.
Kate Northrup:Oh my gosh. Amazing. Okay. And I I wanna share that if you also want more Emily, which I can't imagine you wouldn't, you really need to listen to her podcast, why isn't everyone doing this? I've listened to 80% at least of the episodes you put out.
Kate Northrup:Might I be your biggest fan. I don't know. I mean, I'm sure somebody's listened to all of them, but I'm, like, catching up. I just beyond loving your voice, which is great, the way you interview people, your enthusiasm, the depth of what you bring, and for anyone else who is someone who is voracious for information that's maybe more in the nooks and crannies of our culture, I love your podcast so much. So so everybody listen to it, why isn't everyone doing this, which you can find on any podcast platform.
Kate Northrup:And is there anywhere else that people should connect with you?
Emily Fletcher:I'd say zivameditation.com. So zivameditation.com has all of these resources. So sacred secret, Ziva meditation, the book, the podcast, all of that can be found there. And we're on social media. We just hit 150,000 followers, which felt like a big milestone.
Emily Fletcher:Yeah. And it's just at Ziva Meditation.
Kate Northrup:Amazing. I love you Emily.
Emily Fletcher:I can do this all day. You make me laugh. I love you. I also let I listened to you all night last night. Was like listening to you preparing for today and I was just listening to your podcast in my ears.
Kate Northrup:You're sweet. I love that.
Emily Fletcher:And you're just so special and thank you for your joy, your wisdom, for your love, for your caretaking. There's no one like you.
Kate Northrup:Thanks, Emily. I love you.